Identity management on the web with Open ID

Practical and Open

OpenID is a step in the right direction for identity management. Because OpenID implements single sign-on, it becomes more convenient for users by reducing the number of passwords you need to remember. The ability to manage attributes is far more powerful than it appears at first glance.

The number of websites using OpenID continues to skyrocket, but some really big applications will still need to prove whether they fulfill all of the operative and conceptional requirements with respect to trust and availability.

Identity Management and Federation

OpenID is not the only identity management project. Feder ID [9], for example, is an open source project from France. One of the project's contributors, Clément Oudot, underlined the importance of digital identities for access to web resources in a recent interview with Linux Magazine.

According to Oudot, many users possess a separate identity for each website. This is major issue for large enterprises and organizations, as users need to memorize multiple passwords. Feder ID provides tools for synchronizing identity repositories. These attributes are not only available to a single local organization; they can be shared by trusted partners.

The Feder ID tools are open source licensed and comply with the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), and Liberty Alliance standards for identity management.

Software called ArisID should allow developers to write protocol-independent applications that automatically incorporate identity management standards. The overall goal is to protect user data in a dependable and secure manner.